Forest of Leota

"Corporal wake up. Wake up Corporal. " A Mare Guardpony poked me in the back.

"What, what is it? " I said half asleep.

"1st Sargent Stonewall wants you up for dinner, we are to meet him in the Mess Hall."

"Right. Brothers! Wake up time for dinner." I yelled waking them up.

"I'm up." Orion flew down from his bunk.

"Five more minutes." Atlas groaned.

"No." I used my magic to flip him and his mattress onto the floor.

"Okay fine, jeez you don't have to be so rough." Atlas complained.

"Lead the way please Specialist." I said asking the Grey and White Pegasus.

She nodded and started towards door and down the hallway to the stairs, we followed.

"Whats your name Specialist?" I inquired.

"My name is Specialist Mist. By the way I'm the one who bet that you three would be able to get here."

"So your the one who won the wager?" Atlas asked.

"The Sargent told you about that huh?"

"Why wouldn't he tell us?" Orion asked as we started up the stairs.

"Well I told some of the other guards that it was insensitive to basically make bets on a life. That's why I made the bet I did."

"Well that was kind of you." I commented.

We walked up the stairs and to the mess hall in silence. I walked up to the food counter and grabbed a tray for my brothers and me, and used my magic to put food on the trays as we passed, Mist followed behind us.

"Thasus, Atlas, Orion, Mist! Come sit down over here." Stonewall waved us over to the table he was at with a few other guards. "You two scoot over so they can sit." He instructed to a pair of Guards.

"There something you wanted to discuss with us?" I asked as I sat down with my brothers and Mist.

"In a second. First I wanted to introduce the Guards that will you'll be working with until the rest of your platoon arrives. The fellow Unicorn Guard in front of you his name is Private 1st Class Hex."

"How you doing?" Hex said not looking up from his food.

Hex looked different. Hex had the Thestral eyes and curved horn. He looked half Unicorn pony and half Thestral pony.

"And the Pegasus next to him...." the Sargent continued. "...is his brother Lieutenant Ace." Ace actually looked up at us.

"Lieutenant?" Orion asked puzzled.

"I served as a Wonderbolt for three years before coming here. They let me keep my Rank." Ace explained.

"Private Hex, Specialist Mist, and Lieutenant Ace will be working with you from now, until your platoon gets here." Stonewall said.

"What's it like here?" Knight Gaze asked.

"Calm for the most part, other than the occasional Timber Wolf, and flying monkey at the top of the tower." Hex commented.

"Flying monkeys?" I asked not amused.

"Its nothing, we just have to shoo one away from time to time." The Stonewall said.

"No, I'm not buying it." I said taking a few bites of my dinner.

"Yeah me too." Atlas commented.

"Me three." Orion added.

"Not buying what? Ace said confused.

"'Flying monkeys' we're not buying it. We don't believe you that there are Flying Monkeys. I think you're messing with us."

"Fine, don't say we didn't warn you." Stonewall said, "For the first few days your all gonna be on Night Watch until the rest of the new guard platoon gets here. Ace, I want you partnered with Atlas. Hex is with Orion. Mist your with Thasus." Stonewall said.

"What! Why?" Hex asked.

"Because I want to start implementing a twenty-four hour watch on the forest." The Stonewall, "Since your duty doesn't start until a few hours after dinner, you all have the entire day to show them the ropes. I have paperwork to do if you'll excuse me." Stonewall got up and left the Mess Hall.

"So did you all pick this duty station, or were you Voluntold?" Ace asked.

"Voluntold." Orion answered.

"Welcome to the bottom of Equestria." Mist said.

"Your gonna love it." Hex said sarcastically.

"Well I guess we should show you around." Ace suggested.

The six of them got up and started touring the tower. There was the Officers quarters, Smithy, Physical Training Room, Medical Bay, and Recreation Lounge. Then there was the Library. Mist and I stayed there for the remaining time. Ace, Hex, Atlas and Orion went to the Physical Training Room.

While we were in the library Mist couldn't stop telling me all about herself. There was no one else in the library so we weren't worried about being loud. Whenever Mist asked me a question about my past I either told her as little as possible or deflected the question. Our few hours were up in no time.

We met up in the mess hall to divvy up the posts for the night, "Thasus, Mist, you two are going to take the Crow's nest. Hex and Orion, you are going to be taking the lower observation deck. Atlas and I are going to be at the gates. Any questions?"

"No." I told him.

"Then I guess there's no more stalling it, we better get get out there and relieve the guards so they can sleep." Ace said. We then made our way to the posts in the tower.

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The Night Watch was extremely dull. Half the time Mist and I had to start doing laps around the deck to stay awake. The other half of the time we were waking each other up to do those laps.

Mist yawned, "How must time do we have left out here?"

I looked at the horizon to the east, "About an hour and a half before dawn." I told her with a tiered tone.

"Celestia needs to hurry up." Mist said with another yawn. She looked simply terrible, she could barely keep her eyes open.

"Just stay awake, once were done out here it's breakfast and then sleep."

"Yeeesss!" She said excited about breakfast and sleep.

I let out a chuckle.

"You know what it is I forgot to ask you at dinner?"

"What?" I asked not thinking that there was anything left to tell.

"Where is the rest of your family and friends? Mist said as she stumbled from exhaustion.

"Our family is in Vanhoover. As for friends, if I don't count my brothers I've never really had any." I answered.

Mist was awake now after hearing about that. "What do you mean that you 'never really had any'? Please explain."

"I don't really feel like explaining it right now. Lets just finish up here."

Mist didn't seen like that I wouldn't tell her why. We continued to watch the forest. Until the sun poked up over the horizon. Then two Guards came up and told us to go down for breakfast. We entered the mess hall and got our food, it was French Toast. Stonewall called us over, "Thasus, Mist good morning. How did it go?" Ace, Hex, and my brothers were already eating. They all stayed silent, because all four of them felt exhausted.

"It was miserable." Mist said annoyed, and the rest of us just nodded in agreement.

"Well I'm not surprised. I need to get to my desk I have some paperwork to get done." Stonewall got up and left.

We all spent breakfast in a awkward quiet. I knew all Mist wanted to hear was more of my story, and I'm sure Ace and Hex could feel her thinking about how to get it out of him or one of my brothers. Problem was that I didn't exactly trust her yet. So after breakfast we went to the barracks, Mist went to the Mare's quarters.

"Hey don't get too open with anypony here yet." I started telling my brothers.

"Why?" They asked in unison.

"Because we just met them. I don't want them to know everything about us if it turns out that they aren't as friendly as they seem."

"Alright then. But I think that this assignment will be better than we expected." Atlas commented.

"Besides Thasus, I think that Pegasus Mist has a crush on you." Orion laughed.

"Your hallucinating. Now go to bed. Good Day." I said getting into my bed.

"Good Day." Atlas said going to bed. I closed the blinds with my magic, and before falling asleep I thought to myself, Mist is kinda cute when she's overly curious.